The Pursuit of Happyness - Review

It's been a Christmas tradition in my family that we go to watch a movie every Christmas Day. Since we don't have a large family (just my parents and I) and don't have much else to do, it's an excuse to get out of the house for a few hours and spend some time together. There's usually a bunch of good movies released at Christmas time as well, just in time for Oscar season.

So this year we decided to go watch The Pursuit of Happyness. After having a dim sum lunch at our favorite dim sum place (Good Luck Restaurant in the Chinese Cultural Plaza - tell them Myong sent you. They won't know what the hell you're talking about but the expression on their face when you tell them that will probably be worth a laugh), we went to Ward Theaters to watch the film. We usually go to Dole but the showtime there didn't quite work out. Man, Ward was crowded! I was surprised at how many people go to the movies on Christmas Day. I mean, we've been doing it for a while, but never seen a crowd this big. Anyways....

Onto the film, right? The Pursuit of Happyness is "inspired" by the true story of Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith. The story is set in 1981 in San Francisco. Chris Gardner is a bone scanner salesman but he's having a hard time making sales and supporting his wife and young son. His wife is forced to work double shifts to make ends meet while her husband continuously comes home without making a sale. Fed up with her life, she leaves Chris and their son. Chris is looking for a new direction in life and happens to come across a successful stockbroker. This gives him an idea and he applies for a 6 month internship at Dean Witter. The only problem is, the internship is a non-paying job and he has no money to survive in the meantime, not to mention that the odds of landing a full time job after the internship are 1:20. Chris and his son are forced to move out of their house and sleep in homeless shelters because of their lack of money.

Will Smith does an excellent job here and although I've always liked him as an actor, I've got even more respect for his game after watching this film. His son in the film is played by his real life son Jayden Smith and he's wonderful as well. The chemistry between the two is amazing as it should be. Their close bond and the conversations they share are really touching.

I thought that this was a great film and recommend everyone watch it. Yeah, it gets a little sappy at times but are we so jaded now that we can't handle a bit of overly dramatic gooeyness? Especially when it's so sweet?

I give Pursuit of Happyness a 9/10.